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Human development is taking place under conditions that are increasingly distanced from the ‘natural world’. What does that mean in terms of ordinary human thinking? A person wanders around in a street and sees a cat in a similar activity. The person not only perceives the presence, and movements, of that animal, but immediately begins to make sense of the event in terms of their own personal culture. The animal becomes referred to as ‘this is a cat’, which may become linked with personal affective tone of liking the cat (‘what a kitty!’), or hating it (‘that stray cat in the street’). By personally relating to the cat, the meaning-making person simultaneously distances themself(bywayof ...